Metallica's only complete album is Master of Puppets and is also their best song. I like a lot of their songs but the only album played front to back is Master.
The difference between Metallica when they were great and then everything after 1989 is not just the sound of their guitars or whatever; they fundamentally and deliberately changed the way they wrote music and who they wrote it for. The masses and Clear Channel love 4/4 time. Bon Jovi is in 4/4. Motley Crue is in 4/4. Candlebox is 4/4. Only weird musicians and nerds enjoy bands that have weird time changes in their songs (nobody better at doing this and being commercially successful than Rush). But Metallica used to mix it up because they were great musicians and they were writing great and challenging songs.
Here's the time signatures for some of the early Metallica songs:
“Blackened” 4/4 intro that cycles through 3/4 and 4/4 and 5/4, then drops into 7/4 and 6/4 for the verse; choruses snap back to 4/4 with two-beat 2/4 tag bars.
“…And Justice for All” Main riff is in 5/4; verses flip between 4/4 and 3/4, and a 2/4 “catch-breath” often appears at the end of the motif.
“Eye of the Beholder” Switches between straight 4/4 in the verses and an off-kilter 5/4 (some sheet music shows it as 12/8 + 15/8) throughout the chorus section.
“One” Opens in 4/4, moves to 3/4 for the clean verses, injects occasional 2/4 bars, shifts to 6/4 in the bridge, then finishes the double-kick finale in fast 4/4 (felt as cut-time 2/2).
“The Frayed Ends of Sanity” Nominally 4/4, but has a parade of cut-and-paste two-beat (2/4) and seven-beat (7/4) bars
"Battery” – 3/4 intro; main riff 4/4; verses insert a single-bar 2/4 tag every four bars; two isolated 3/4 measures appear during the solo.
“The Four Horsemen” – verses / choruses 4/4; middle “gallop” section mixes in 12/8 before returning to 4/4.
“Fade to Black” – 4/4 with scattered single-bar 2/4 pickups; bridge is 6/4; ending double-time still counted 4/4.
“Fight Fire with Fire” – classical intro 12/8; main part 4/4; pre-chorus trims one bar to 3/4 before landing back in common time.
“For Whom the Bell Tolls” – opening bell riff felt in 3/4 (some write it 12/8); crashes into 4/4 under the solo and ride-out.
“Jump in the Fire” – mid-tempo 4/4 throughout; each chorus has a two-beat 2/4 pickup bar.
“Master of Puppets” – intro/verse: seven bars 4/4 plus one bar 7/8 (you may see some versions where they just call it 15/16); pre-chorus alternates 4/4 and 3/4
“Motorbreath” – 4/4 except for a single 2/4 bar each cycle in the chorus.
“No Remorse” – verses are 4/4, but there's one accent bar of 6/4 just before the final solo break; the fast outro is cut-time and arguably 2/2
“Orion” – first riff 4/4; mid-section bass melody 6/8, throw in one 3/4 bar just for fun, the final is 4/4 with a single 5/4 turnaround.
“Phantom Lord” – verses / choruses 4/4; clean mid-section is 12/8 for sixteen bars, then back to 4/4.
“Ride the Lightning” – verse riff 4/4; pre-chorus alternates 4/4 with 3/4; slow solo section is 6/4; outro returns to 4/4.
“The Thing That Should Not Be” – verse 4/4; pre-chorus drops a bar of 2/4; breakdown adds two bars of 3/4 before restoring 4/4.
“Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” – clean intro/verse follows 6/4, 6/4 , 4/4 pattern; chorus stays 4/4; bridge clips a bar to 3/4; fast finale resumes 4/4.
“Whiplash” – mostly 4/4, but pre-chorus lurches for a single bar of 3/4 every fourth line.
Now here is the time signature for every song on "The Black Album" (except Nothing Else Matters which stays at a consistently plodding 3/4):
4/4.
That's it. Every song. From start to finish. Freaking steady 4/4 all the way through. Like the Kingsmen or Def Leppard. The Black album and beyond reflected a deliberate change in the way they wrote music, and I think it's fair to conclude that they wanted to make more money by being more accessible to the masses. AKA: sell out. Now if you truly like the Black album and all the other stuff after (the worst I've heard has to be that song about a candle in the window lights the way home), that's cool and I don't judge. But for people like me that used to love Metallica in high school and then couldn't stand them afterwards, I hope this helps shed some light on why that may be.
